


at the edge of the ocean (we can start over again)

by neffie_graham



Category: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!
Genre: Fairy Tale Elements, Inspired by the Little Mermaid, M/M, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-06-01 23:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6540763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neffie_graham/pseuds/neffie_graham
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mihashi gave up his fin to find the boy who used to hold his hand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	at the edge of the ocean (we can start over again)

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by tumblr user fuel-sports-anime.

Mihashi looked around the deserted beach, the sand digging into his brand-new feet. The rising sun made a painting of the oceans, the oranges and reds and pinks mixing and mingling and making Mihashi sigh wistfully for his home. As the sun slowly grew higher in the sky, Mihashi clenched his fists and set back his shoulders. He was ready to go, ready to find him.

Turning around, he came face to face with, quite conveniently, the very man he was looking for.

“What the fuck?”

Oh. Well. That wasn’t quite the reaction he was expecting.

“Why the hell are you naked? It’s like, cold as shit out here!” Averting his eyes in a flustered panic, the man stumbled back a bit as Mihashi tried to get closer.

“C-col… no- I- not co- n-not c-…”

“Are you stupid? Hold on, wait right here. I have an extra pair of pants on my boat, though I really wasn’t expecting to need them until the rainy season. Ugh. Just,” the man bit his lip, scanning the beach, “Just sit over behind that rock.” He ran off, towards the end of the beach where the boats sat tied to the dock. 

Mihashi did as he was told, and waited for the man- his love!- to come back to him. Of course, he wasn’t just any man. He was Abe Takaya, the boy who would play with him when the waters were warm, who would teach him about the human sport called baseball, whose smile made Mihashi feel a little bit more brave. 

Abe Takaya, whose arm he wasn’t able to save from that shark. Mihashi could plainly see the scarred skin where once there was a right elbow, and his heart broke like it did that day when he left the unconscious Abe on the beach near the docks, to be found by that scary lady he’d heard Abe call Momokan.

Of course Abe would no longer recognize him. They had both grown, and Mihashi’s family had moved to more southern waters many summers ago. Only now was Mihashi permitted to return to his birthplace, a place of color and love and baseball. 

As he heard Abe returning, Mihashi stood quickly, and immediately almost fell over. His legs were still weak, and his control over them was lacking. He waved his arms wildly, trying to regain his balance, when Abe’s hand was suddenly holding him steady.

“Whoa, there. You okay?”

“O- Oka-k-ay!”

“Right, so, no talking. I can’t bear to hear you stuttering, it sounds so fucking pitiful. Here, put these on,” Abe grumbled, handing Mihashi a pair of canvas pants. “I couldn’t find a shirt, but I’m sure Momokan’ll scrounge something up.” Abe sighed, rubbing the back of his hand across his forehead. 

While Mihashi struggled with the pants– clothing was a completely new idea for him who had spent his whole life in the water and letting the ocean slip over his skin and gills and scales the same yellow-green color of his eyes– he heard the name Abe mentioned. When he finally figured out what humans called a ‘zipper’, he tugged on Abe’s arm to get his attention.

“M-momo-k-kan! L-lady… s-sc-scar…y? I-I… r-rem-ember… her!”

“Huh? How the hell do you know Momokan? You’re not from here, don’t try to tell me otherwise. Yeah, she’s scary, alright.” Abe’s eyebrow quirked, and he glared at Mihashi with suspicious, hardened eyes. “Where are you from, anyways? You keep stuttering so much I can’t recognize any accent.”

Mihashi flinched away from the glare,his voice quieting even more. “R-ri… right! Not fr-from h-h-ere… fro-from th-th-there!” Mihashi pointed out towards the reef, smiling brightly as Abe followed the direction of his finger.

“Uh, from across the ocean?”

Mihashi’s eyes widened, and he shook his head rapidly from side to side. “N-no. From… h-here,” he gestured to the ground around them, “b-but… al-also… th-there.” His finger pointed once more to the ocean.

Abe’s head tilted, and he scratched his head. “You’re not making any sense.”

Mihashi sighed, and he wracked his brain for a better way to explain his origins. Perking up, he grabbed Abe’s left hand and pulled him to the ocean. 

“H-hold it! Where are we going?”

Mihashi just smiled over his shoulder, and the sight made Abe unwittingly ease his protests. 

All too soon, they were both standing in the water up to the middle of their calves.

“H-here. L-live… here. In… w-wa-water!”

Finally, realization dawned over Abe. He had a vague memory of… something, something that he had set aside as perhaps just his childish imagination, and had neglected as he became wiser to the world, to a world where mermaids and mermen and sirens are only the lore of drunken sailors, not something to be believed in by responsible adults.

“You… you’re a mermaid?” Abe’s throat suddenly felt dry, his eyebrows drew together. Something about this lithe and delicate looking boy with golden hair reflecting the sun was familiar. Something about his voice made him remember that day he woke up in Momokan’s house with the weight of his right forearm gone.

“Y-ye-yeah!” Smiling wider than ever, Mihashi placed his hands on Abe’s shoulders. “I… I’m Mi-Mihash-shi. R-Ren! Mi-missed you… T-Takaya!”

It all came crashing down on Abe at once. Happy summer days filled with boyish laughter, a hesitant kiss on the cheek, a promise of returning the next day, holding hands on the rocks splashing water on each other running his fingers through hair full of sunshine a beautiful smile a shark blood in the water and pain but love love lovelovelove–

“I love you, Takaya… please don’t die!”

“Ren,” he breathed, a smile growing rapidly on a face which hadn’t smiled in years. With his arm he pulled Mihashi into him, burying his face into the crook of his neck. He smelled of the ocean, of those wonderful memories of summer and youth. 

“T-t-takaya… h-happy?”

“Mm. Yeah, I’m really happy.”

“B-bec-cause… w-why?”

Abe pulled back just far enough that he could rest his forehead against Mihashi’s, gazing into those beautiful eyes that, he remembered, had been the same color of his breathtaking fins. 

“Because I found you, Ren. Or really, you found me, I suppose. Heh, who’d’ve thought that the timid little mermaid would be the one man enough to brave land, when I can’t go in past my knees without freaking out?” Abe smiled sardonically, closing his eyes and breathing a few chuckles.

“A-arm… no b-baseb-ball?”

Abe’s eyes opened suddenly. He really had almost forgotten the gazes of pity people like Hanai and Izumi had given him when they thought Abe wasn’t looking. “Yeah, no baseball. Had to give up my spot as star catcher to Tajima, as if he wasn’t enough of a star already. Really, though, I don’t envy him for having to work with Haruna.” At Mihashi’s concerned gaze, he laughed it off. “It’s okay, really! I fish for a living now, and I help the team with stuff like strategies.”

“F-fish?” Mihashi frowned, the thought of eating fish making his stomach flip upside down.

Abe almost missed the note of disgust in Mihashi’s voice, and it confused him until he remembered that duh, Mihashi practically is a fish! …That was weird for him to think, considering the boy in question was currently very human. “Sorry, Mihashi. I didn’t mean to upset you. But y’know, we gotta eat somehow, and this island just isn’t suitable for farming.”

Mihashi’s face twisted as he reluctantly nodded. He startled when Abe’s fingers were suddenly cupping his chin. Abe was leaning forward, and the sun was almost fully up, and only the slightest shade of pink still lingered on the horizon and in the water, and the water seemed to sparkle more than ever as it caressed their legs softly, and everything was perfect.

“L-love you, Ta-takaya…”

Abe smiled against his lips, pulling back only the distance necessary to whisper back, “Love you too, Ren. Thanks for coming back to me.”

And their lips met fully, and the sun left the horizon and gleamed in its full glory on the rippling ocean, on the white sands of the beach, on the golden hair of a boy who knew that bravery paid off.


End file.
